DEHRADUN: A local court in Dehradun issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against social media "influencer" Bobby Kataria on Thursday. A case was filed against Kataria in the city's Cantonment police station after a video purportedly showing him consuming liquor in the middle of a road between Doon & Mussoorie went viral.
The NBW was issued after he ignored three summons by police. Shankar Singh Bisht, station house officer (SHO) of Cantonment police station, said that a team will soon leave for Gurgaon to arrest Kataria and bring him to Dehradun for questioning.
When informed that some social media reports were claiming Kataria is currently in Dubai, Bisht said that police are verifying this. "A team needs to be sent to the accused's address as per legal procedure. If he isn't found at home, we will file a report accordingly," he added.
The SHO further said that Kataria did not co-operate in the investigation. "After the first summon sent to him, his lawyer replied saying he would appear before police but he didn't. Subsequently, as per legal procedure, two more summons were sent, but to no avail." Police had earlier found in their probe that Kataria came to Dehradun on July 23 with a friend. On July 28, he uploaded a video on his verified Instagram account with around 6.3 lakh followers, in which he can be seen sitting on a chair in the middle of the road and pouring himself a drink.
Kataria had earlier uploaded a video of him smoking on a SpiceJet flight in January this year. While SpiceJet confirmed that this happened on a Delhi-Dubai flight and that the airline had put him on a no-flying list for 15 days in February, Kataria claimed the plane was a dummy and part of a shoot in Dubai.
